1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bottom stop for being mounted on a pair of companion slide fastener stringers across a bottom end of a pair of intermeshing rows of coupling elements and having a surface for bearing an ornamental pattern.
2. Prior Art
Ornamental bottom stops for slide fasteners have longer and wider dimensions to provide a surface large enough to bear a suitable decorative pattern than those of ordinary slide fastener bottom stops. One known type of such bottom stop is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 49-37763 published on Oct. 16, 1974. The disclosed bottom stop is composed of a fastening member and a stiffening member. The fastening member has a channel-shaped cross section including a plurality of pointed clinching legs for penetrating slide fastener stringer tapes. For attachment, the fastening member is placed on one side of the slide fastener at a bottom end thereof while the stiffening member is placed on the other side in alignment with the fastening member. The fastening member is pressed against the slide fastener until the pointed clinching legs pass through the stringer tapes. Then, the pointed clinching legs are bent into clinching engagement with the stiffening member to hold the fastening and stiffening members firmly together. The ornamental bottom stop is dimensionally larger than normal bottom stops and should be securely attached to the stringer tapes to avoid unwanted positional displacement or unstableness. One proposal would be to provide as many or large pointed clinching legs as possible. However, they would damage and reduce the strength of the stringer tapes to an undesirable extent. Fewer or smaller pointed clinching legs would fail to secure the bottom stop to the tapes with a sufficiently large strength. Another problem is that if the pointed clinching legs were staked on the stiffening member under too a strong force, then the fastening member and the stiffening member would tend to be deformed, resulting in an impaired ornamental design. The prior bottom stop also has had a drawback in that the clinching legs are liable to turn up off the stiffening member while in prolonged use, particularly under rough usage. When this happens, the fastening and stiffening members are likely to be disassembled, and the clinching legs as they project may damage the wearer's clothes and injure the wearer's body.